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9th Circuit Hears California Prop 8 Case; WikiLeaks Cables Point to Chinese Government Hacking; More Stimulus Possible; Obama's Focus on the Economy; Google Launches eBooks Today; Attorney General Holder on WikiLeaks: Put American Lives at Risk; The New Facebook Applications
Aired December 06, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Drew. Have a great afternoon. I'm Ali Velshi, as Drew said. I'm with you the next two hours.
Here's what I've got on the rundown. A WikiLeaks bombshell, the sinister cyber-attack that chased Google out of China traced right to the highest levels of the Chinese government.
Plus a town in shock after a high school catcher wearing full protective gear dies instantly after getting hit in the chest by a pitch. How could it happen?
And with today's "Big I," better health is now just a mouse click away. M.D. Mouse is in the house.
For the past few years, however, if you didn't like the laws regarding same-sex marriage in California, you basically just had to wait a while for them to change. But after lawsuits and rallies And protests and petitions and a voter referendum, they're running out of places to fight this battle. And that means stake are getting higher.
A huge fight is getting under way right now, and the outcome could change the laws in your state, too. A federal appeals court in San Francisco is hearing arguments for and against Proposition 8. That's a voter-passed measure that renders same-sex marriage illegal. Its backers are appealing a trial court ruling that Proposition 8 violates the, quote, "equal protection clause of the Constitution."
It's almost certain the Supreme Court will have the final word, but until then, I want to show you where we stand now as a nation -- 37 out of 50 states allow -- define marriage as one man and one woman. You won't see them on the map because they're the ones that aren't colored. Now, you see the states in green, generally over on the East Coast and in the middle, plus the District of Columbia. They allow same-sex couples to marry. New Jersey, which is over there in orange on the right, it allows civil unions, a little bit different. The states in yellow grant spousal rights to unmarried couples.
California is a case study, by the way, all unto itself. In May of 2008, the state supreme court said same-sex marriage is legal, but the following November, Proposition 8 passed. And in May of 2009, the state supreme court refused to strike it down. Then in August, a federal court did strike it down, and that brings us to today.
So for two (ph) at the top (ph), I call on CNN senior legal analyst Jeff Toobin with this question. Jeff, what is happening today that is going to make a difference?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST (via telephone): Well, a three-judge panel of the United States court of appeals for the 9th circuit in San Francisco is hearing an appeal of Judge Walker's decision, which struck down Proposition 8. So it's really very simple. The question is, is Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California -- is that measure constitutional, or is it a form of discrimination against gay people?
VELSHI: All right. And what is likely to be the outcome of this? Because it does seem that this is going to end up at the Supreme Court of the United States.
TOOBIN: Well, it's hard to predict. There are various ways the appeals court can go. I think, given the make-up of the three-judge panel, the odds favor a decision affirming Judge Walker's decision, meaning again finding Proposition 8 unconstitutional. But as you point out, this is almost certainly just a way station between this case and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Now, just to throw another wrinkle into this, rather than decide this case on the merits, rather than decide whether Proposition 8 is constitutional or not, there is an option open to these judges to say the plaintiffs in this case don't have standing -- or the defendants, the people defending the law, since the state of California is now in the hands of people who support same-sex marriage, they don't have standing to be there. So they could throw the case -- affirm the case on procedural grounds.
So they might do it on proposal grounds. They might reach the merits. But it looks like Proposition 8 may go down as a result of this decision at this stage.
VELSHI: All right. We'll keep a close eye on it. Jeff Toobin, good to see you, as always. Thanks very much for joining us.
Sound effect time. And trust me, sound from this guy really does have an effect. He's the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, one of the most powerful people on the planet even in the best of times. Bernanke's made friends and enemies with his varied approaches to boosting credit and juicing the economy, but as you know, unemployment has barely budged. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," Bernanke didn't predict any breakthroughs in unemployment any time soon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Between the peak and the end of last year, we lost 8.5 million jobs. We've only gotten about a million of them back so far. And that doesn't even count the new people coming into the labor force. At the rate we're going, it could be four, five years before we are back to a more normal unemployment rate, somewhere in the vicinity of, say, 5, percent or 6 percent. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Five or six percent in a few years. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Also, what's the Fed doing to bankroll the recovery? Is it planning on printing more money? Well, Bernanke had something to say about that, too. You'll hear it in "YOUR $$$" about 10 minutes from now.
Well, after a weekend of back and forth bickering, the Senate finally seems on track for a tax deal. Here's what we're hearing about it. The Bush tax cuts would remain in place for everybody, from baby-sitters to billionaires. Democrats had wanted to limit that to households making up to $250,000 a year, but Senate Republicans blocked that plan on Saturday. However, the GOP is now expected to go along with an extension of unemployment benefits, which is one of President Obama's main demands. The White House is looking to get this thing done by mid-week. We'll keep you posted on it.
Almost 10 weeks after they dropped from the sky, the remains of two American balloonists have been found deep (ph) off the Adriatic, off Puglia, Italy. A fishing boat made the discovery after the balloon's gondola got tangled in its nets. Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis were four days into a race that began in southern England. They hit rough weather and lost contact with race officials on September 29th. The Italian coast guard mounted a week-long search, but it came up empty.
Well, an unusual court case is getting under way today. A Texas judge is considering whether the state's death penalty, as applied, is constitutional. Texas, of course, leads the nation in executions. It's seen 464 prisoners put to death since 1976. However, it's also seen 11 death row inmates exonerated, and that's the heart of the argument brought by lawyers for an accused killer. They're not claiming the death penalty in and of itself is cruel and unusual. Instead, they say the way Texas imposes it creates substantial risk that innocent folks will end up on death row, which is cruel and unusual punishment.
And if you're looking for a nice, quiet piece of property to settle down on, you couldn't find quieter than this. It's 1.4 acres in western Montana. No electricity, no running water. It makes sense because the land used to belong to anti-technology zealot Ted Kaczynski. Yes, he's the "Unabomber." For about $70,000, this prime real estate could be yours. The listing describes it as piece of infamous U.S. history that's obviously very secluded. Unfortunately, Kaczynski's title (ph) cabin is not included in the deal. It is in a museum in Washington, D.C.
OK, coming up next, we're going to tell you all about the latest bombshell from WikiLeaks, allegations that China has been hacking into U.S. government and Google computers for nearly a decade. Stay right here on CNN for more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Well, diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks opened a window into a controversial censorship battle in China. According to the cables, China has been hacking into U.S. government and Google computers for nearly a decade, and the hacking of Google has allegedly has been overseen by top officials in the Chinese government.
Deb Feyerick and Christine Romans have been following this story. They're with us live from New York on this. Deb, let's start with you. What do these cables tell us?
DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's so interesting is that while the People's Republic of China was fighting Google to censor information on Google China, it was also targeting U.S. companies and government agencies, really, in what's been described as sophisticated attacks. It was doing so using freelancers sanctioned by the government, apparently.
Now, one cable says China's security agency, quote, "has recruited Chinese hackers in support of nationally funded network attack scientific research projects," another cable exposing China's, quote, "use of its private sector in support of governmental information warfare objectives, especially its ability to gather, process and exploit information."
Now, the attacks targeted American government and military data -- in one case, for example, 2008, 50 megabytes of e-mails and a complete list of passwords from an unnamed government agency was acquired by China, apparently. The hackers did this using a computer document that they had headlined, quote, "Salary increase survey and forecast."
Another example, well, somebody from China pretended to be a correspondent for a U.S. political magazine and had attached a PDF file that was supposed to download and then give the hacker complete control to the person who's opening the e-mail -- complete control of their computer. That particular attack failed.
But the cables really indicate the hackers have the backing of the Chinese government and that the hackers are using Chinese language keyboards which are physically based in China. So all of this exposing, really, what is a sophisticated effort not only to block Google and China, also to use it as an instrument to get into other areas -- Ali.
VELSHI: Christine Romans, we have had this discussion. You can replace Google and Internet hacking with other things about China and the world's relations to China and companies that want to do business in China. There is definitely some sense among some that we all turn a little bit of a blind eye to things that China does that we wouldn't find acceptable anywhere in the world because the U.S. and Google continue to want access to China.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, "YOUR $$$$$": Look, everyone's making money in China and have been, or have been trying to figure out how to make money for a long time, so they're able to, you're right, turn aside some of the concerns that they've had for a long time, well documented concerns, I'll point out. Long before these WikiLeak files, there have been many -- a U.S. -- China has documented many, many concerns about both hacking against U.S.-based computers and networks, including the U.S. government, and also censorship.
Ali, there's this other issue here. For a long time, the philosophy in Washington has been, Look, technology companies, U.S. technology companies, U.S. trade with China will move China more toward democracy, will make China more like us. But the question is, does it change China, or does China change trade and technology?
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: And China really flexing its muscle and has an awful lot of power with the companies that do business there.
VELSHI: And Deb, here's an example. There's one cable that indicates that a senior Chinese official, a fairly high up, high-level official, Googled himself, found something uncharitable about him, and then tried to spearhead the effort to get them shut down.
FEYERICK: Well, that's what's so interesting. Apparently, when he went onto Google China and began surfing, he found that when you're on Google China, you could get a link to Google.com, and that was something Google was very serious about having in place. So when he went to Google.com and then entered his name, it came up with several very unflattering descriptions of him. And that was one of the reasons he put pressure on three ministries to try to come down hard on Google.
He also apparently asked that the network be taken -- at least take steps to try to put it down, and he also put pressure on the telecom companies, saying, Don't do business with Google. And when a Chinese official says, Don't do business with Google, well, telecom companies were listening.
VELSHI: Yes. All right. Deb, Christine, thanks so much for this. We'll keep on top of this. These WikiLeaks are keeping us busy.
All right, the country's top economist has some words that could affect your job and your taxes. I'll have a look at it in "YOUR MONEY" coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: A little over a month ago the Fed announced something -- they announced that they were going to put $600 billion into the economy. It was a boring word call quantitative easing. QE2 for short. The two stands for the second time they've done.
Now hear me out on this. QE2 is actually pretty simple. The Fed buys bonds from banks. Buys its own bonds back. These are banks -- bonds that the bank had. That gives the banks the $600 billion. The banks can use that hopefully to lend it to consumers and businesses.
There are three things all that extra money can end up doing. It can increase lending, lower interest rates and, when you put all that money out there, well, it could weaken the dollar. It's already weaken the U.S. dollar. $600 billion is a whole lot of money. But the Fed chair, Ben Bernanke, hinted yesterday on "60 Minutes" that the Fed could give even more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT PELLEY, CBS'S "60 MINUTES": Do you anticipate a scenario in which you would commit to more than $600 billion?
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Oh, it's certainly possible. And, again, it depends on the efficacy of the program, it depends on inflation and, finally, it depends on how the economy looks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Christine Romans, co-host of "Your Money," joins me now from New York to talk a little bit more about this.
They had actually said, Christine, that it might go up to $900 billion. And the fact is, there are a lot of people -- there are people entirely split on this thing. There are people who think the Fed shouldn't be doing any more of this. Let the economy chips fall where they may. And there are others who say, this is what keeps it going. And if they need to put more money in, they should.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, "YOUR MONEY": And Ben Bernanke says, look, critics, he acknowledges that they're there, but has says that he's looked at this every which way. He doesn't see inflation being a problem down the road. And that the real risk is not doing something.
We've heard that kind of language from the Fed chief before. You know, it's what the Fed has looked at and is worried about and is trying to act against. And bottom line is jobs here, too. I mean the Fed chief saying, Ali, that the unemployment situation is still -- it is still too high. That 2.5 percent job -- 2.5 percent economic growth is not enough to really eat into that jobless rate and it could take four or five years before we get back to more normal.
VELSHI: I mean that was amazing. I mean that's longer, even though when you and I looked at it, we think it's entirely possible that it could take that long to get down to 5 percent.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: Most people are thinking maybe three, three and a half years. Why is Ben Bernanke pushing it that far out? Is he just protecting himself, giving himself a bit of a cushion?
ROMANS: Well, look, I mean, we've reported this number many time, right? If you had 8.4 million jobs lost during the recession. If you added 300,000 jobs every single month, it would take 56 months like that to get back to where you started before the recession.
VELSHI: Right. ROMANS: Now, we've added about a million jobs. Fifty-six months, that's an awfully long time. He's using slightly different math because we're not creating 300,000 jobs a month yet here and we have, over the past year, created some 800,000 or 900,000 jobs. So this is math that is just brutal, no matter how you slice it here. And he's being incredibly frank and sobering about it. We knew it was going to take years. When you hear the Fed chief say it, it just kind of cuts you a little bit because that's a reality for millions of people who, you know, all they want for Christmas is a job under the tree and, you know, and that's not going to come any time soon for a lot of people.
VELSHI: All right, Christine, we'll, of course, continue to follow that and how markets are reacting and see whether there's more money coming in.
ROMANS: Sure.
VELSHI: Christine Romans, my co-host on "Your Money."
ROMANS: Bye, Ali.
VELSHI: And, by the way, you can watch "Your Money" Saturday's at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00. Christine's also the author of "Smart Is The New Rich," which is on bookshelves now and is an excellent, excellent read.
Let me bring you up to speed for the latest developments on the day's top stories.
U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is leaving tonight for South Korea on a hastily planned visit. That's according to the Pentagon. Officials say the purpose of the visit was to reassure the South Korea military of U.S. support in its escalating conflict against North Korea.
The Supreme Court says it will decide whether to certify the largest ever class action employment lawsuit in the United States. This dispute involves Wal-Mart and employees who have accused the retailer of gender bias in pay and company promotions. The suit is seeking back pay that could amount to billions of dollar.
And he was known at Dandy Don. Don Meredith, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, actor and broadcaster on Monday night football has died. Meredith was part of the original Monday night football crew, along with Howard Cosell, and was probably best known for his tag line of "the party's over." He was 72 years old.
Well, the president makes a pit spot in North Carolina to talk about the economy. But the real news out of the White House today might be a possible deal on tax cuts. Ed Henry on the stakeout for us in just a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: The president is in North Carolina talking about the economy, but Ed Henry has stuck around the White House for the stakeout for us.
Ed, good mor -- good afternoon to you. I guess the show's always in the afternoon on the East and morning in the West. What is --
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sorry, did we wake you up a little early for the show today?
VELSHI: Yes, Mondays are always hard to get back into the swing of things. Good to see you, my friend.
HENRY: Hi there. Good to see you.
VELSHI: It is crisp and cold in Washington, as it is here in Atlanta and in North Carolina. What's the president talking about today?
HENRY: Well, he's talking about jobs and the economy, of course. He was at a community college. And, you know, he's been talking for just about all of the first two years about trying to pour more money into community colleges. Some people can't afford four-year colleges right now. Some people unemployed looking for some retraining, learn some new skills and the like and they can do that at community colleges.
But at the same time, he was there to talk about these tax cut negotiations. And I thought it was interesting, you just heard him say, look, I'm not going to get 100 percent of what I want. The Republicans aren't going to get 100 percent of what they want. But Democrats on The Hill are nervous that Republicans are going get more towards 100 percent than the Democrats are in these negotiations. And that's really the sticking point right now, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. The president also talking about -- about the tax cuts and where he thinks it could be. The Republicans do seem to have moved him over. He was pretty clear in the -- initially about not extending them for anyone else. The president did talk today about small businesses benefitting from the extension of the tax cuts.
This becoming a confusing issue, Ed, because we're talking about individual tax cuts, but a lot of small businesses declare their income as individuals and that's where this $250,000 cutoff seems to be confusing people.
HENRY: That's right. And I think to boil it down as simple as you can, I mean the bottom line is, this was a line in the sand for the president that he only wanted tax cuts for those making $250,000 or less, and to extend those, and not extend the ones for those making over $250,000 a year. At this point it looks like he's going to have to extend them at least for a couple of years for everyone, not just the middle class but the rich as well.
So, bottom line is that that's why Democrats on The Hill are kind of frustrated, thinking that here we are, so quickly after the election, even before the Republicans have taken over the House, it looks like they've got -- you know, they're pushing these negotiations more to the Republican ranking right now. VELSHI: Yes.
HENRY: All the president seems to be getting, which is important, though, we should note, is making sure they also extend unemployment insurance. There are millions of people who this tax cut debate is very foreign to them because they're not going to get a tax cut. Instead, they're unemployed right now and their benefits are running out right on the eve of the Christmas holiday. And so the president wants to get that as part of this package. It looks like he'll succeed on that part, Ali.
VELSHI: Ed, last week you told us about somebody who had come to the White House for what appeared to be a second interview for the job to replace Larry Summers, the president's key economic advisor who said he's leaving. Where are we on that?
HENRY: Well, that's the big question. I've got a story on cnn.com about it right now, in fact, on our blog, 600. -- cnn.com/1600report where it lays all this out. And there are some Democrats close to this White House who are telling me, they're hearing nothing about whether or not they're going to really get this done, the White House, by the end of the year, replacing Larry Summers. Larry Summers announced back in September that he was going to be stepping down. And so this is somebody that they're going to need in place, the head of the National Economic Council. Roger Altman is the person that I mentioned that came in for a new round of meetings on Friday. We reported that first. Gene Sperling (ph), a Treasury Department aide, he's also in the running.
Sort of a dark horse name that's come up is Erskine Boles (ph), the former White House chief of staff in the Clinton years, who is co- chair of this debt commission. He might have some credibility to come to the table. He's got some good relationships with the Republicans, for example, dating back to the Clinton days when they were dealing with a Republican Congress. But the bottom line is, there are Democrats close to this White House saying, why hasn't the president announced this yet. If he's going to make jobs his number one focus, he's going to need a new economic team in place to hit the ground running with this new Congress, Ali.
VELSHI: Ed, we'll keep on top of that. I happen to like your coat, by the way. It's very avant-garde (ph). No buttons. It's like Velcro or something.
HENRY: Do we have a scarf budget for the stakeout? Because it's kind of cold out here. I'm wondering if --
VELSHI: I know it's cold. It's going to get cold for you.
Why are there no buttons on your coat?
HENRY: There's buttons -- they're hidden. They're right here.
VELSHI: Oh, I see. All right.
HENRY: Yes, they're in here. VELSHI: I thought maybe it was Velcro.
HENRY: No, no, no. This is more expensive than a Velcro coat. I don't know what you're suggesting or implying?
VELSHI: No, I just -- I was just saying. But it does look very nice. Very fashionable, Ed. Thank you for staying out there in the cold for us. We'll keep track of this. If you hear anything on this whole Larry Summers update, let us know. That's interesting news.
Ed Henry, at the stakeout, as always, our senior White House correspondent.
OK, here's a very interesting story. The teenage catcher, he was a baseball catcher, wearing a chest protector, a ball hits him in the chest and kills him. We'll find out why on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: At half past the hour, here's what's happening right now.
The legality of California's ban on same sex marriage is being put to the test this moment in San Francisco. A three judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide if a lower court was right to declare California's Proposition 8, banning gay marriage, to be unconstitutional.
In France, a court has ruled that the Concorde crash that killed 113 people was caused in part by the criminal negligence of Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics. A piece of metal allegedly fell off a continental D.C. 10, which took off just before the Concorde, causing the Concorde to blow a tire.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says he's authorizing significant actions related to the criminal investigation of WikiLeaks for publishing U.S. diplomatic cables. Holder says American lives have been put at risk.
All right. Google launches eBooks today. I want to talk to you about this. Jessica, one of my producers is here. She's been sort of studying it carefully. Google is launching these eBooks basically to allow you to not just to download books to a typical reader, but it's sort of like it exists in the cloud. It's not just about your reader?
JESSICA KAY-KING, SEGMENT PRODUCER: Exactly. You can take them wherever you go. You can download them from home and then put them on your Android, put them on your iPad, excuse me, iPhone, and you can just take them everywhere. The other really cool thing is that three million of these are public domain, which means they're free. So that's kind of a big step. A lot of them you don't have to pay for. Some you do. But that's the real kick here.
VELSHI: Jessica's here, by the way, because she's scared I'm going to break the wall. I don't have the best relationship with the wall. Here's another thing everybody's talking about. The Facebook. The new Facebook applications that are out there. Some of them are really interesting. But one of the issues that comes up is, we've pointed to you and Ali (ph), who's our famous floor director over here. And what you do is you can -- your homepage, if you choose to use this new model, is going to start to show you relationships that you have with people and the history of those relationships.
KAY-KING: Right. It's kind of cool. You can see with my friend Ali, that we've been Facebook friends since April. It's one of the new things. If we have any pictures tagged together -- which we don't -- they'd be right here.
VELSHI: Right. And then your mutual friends are listed here.
KAY-KING: Exactly. So that's really neat. The caution there, what people should be weary of is if you have potential job prospects. That sort of thing. Things you've written five years ago that could be incriminating, could be on this history. So that's something you really need to think about when you're putting things on Facebook, which we always talk about.
VELSHI: Right. You have to be careful with what you're putting on here. This is something that's still not entirely common to people who use Facebook. Some because they're not as familiar with the privacy settings and some because a younger generation is just used to putting more stuff out there.
So what has happened now is it's become easier for others -- this could be a good thing or bad thing for you -- to see a lot of your history with people.
KAY-KING: Exactly.
VELSHI: You might have told Ali something a year ago that you don't even remember saying, but may not want everyone else being part of.
KAY-KING: Exactly.
VELSHI: All right. Well those are some changes to Facebook. By the way, when you go to Facebook, you can go on to the site. Click on it. Take a look at your privacy settings. Get a feel for this new thing. Do not assume that is all well. This might be something that suits you tremendously. You might really like it. It might be something that doesn't suit you. Check your privacy settings.
All right. A sad, shocking story out of the New York area. Sixteen-year-old Thomas Adams loved baseball. He was a catcher. He'd been playing since he was nine-years-old. He was practicing with his school at a high school gymnasium in Patterson, New Jersey, over the weekend, when a pitch hit him in the chest. He was wearing protective gear, including a chest protector, but he collapsed with a heart attack. He was taken to the hospital and he was pronounced dead. His friends, his family, and his teammates are in a state of shock.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS ADAMS, SON KILLED BY PITCH: The heart and the ball hit at the wrong time and just sent his heart into a severe cardiac arrest. You know? So they couldn't get it back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Wow. Doctors say this kind of thing does happen on rare occasions when a fast-moving ball hits the chest at a certain point in the cardiac cycle, the heart literally skip a beat.
Doctor David Atallcheck a sports medicine and a team physician for the New York Mets told WCBS-TV that in cases like this quote, "A chest protector seems to make no difference at all." And that's the part that's really scary.
A 14-year-old boy arrested in Mexico, says he was a hit man for the drug cartels. He may be a U.S. citizen. Globe Trekking up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK, this just in. We've been talking a lot about your tax cuts. I want to tell you what's going on. As you know, the president is in North Carolina at the moment. The vice president is minding the shop at the White House. And Brianna Keilar has just reported to us that two Democratic congressional aides tell CNN that House Democratic leaders are going to the White House today at around 2:00 Eastern, about 20 minutes from now, to meet with Vice President Biden to discuss ways to move forward on tax cuts. The White House is hoping to get some agreement on tax cuts done by the end the week.
As you know, the Democrats would like to extend the tax cuts to the middle class, families earning less than $250,000 per year. The Republicans would like those tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this year, to be extended for everybody, including high-income earners. Now what they might do is agree with the Republicans to extend those tax cuts for everybody for a short time, in exchange for support in extending those unemployment benefits, which are about to expire.
We'll get more information on this and bring it to you as soon as we have. Stay tuned.
All right. Globe Trekking now beginning in Mexico, with a story how ruthless the drug wars are getting. A 14-year-old boy is accused of being a killer for a drug cartel.
CNN's Nick Valencia has the story in Mexico City.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In one of the most shocking stories in Mexico's drug war, a 14-year-old is being held by federal authorities in Mexico City, accused of ruthless killings on behalf of a Mexican drug cartel.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
VALENCIA: The teenager, who goes by the alias "El Ponchis," was caught Thursday night just outside of Mexico City as he tried to board a flight with his sister. He said his eventual destination was the United States where he told reporters he has relatives. He also said it was his home country.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
VALENCIA: Analysts say the case offers a glimpse into Mexico's drug gangs, which are increasingly recruiting youth to help with their turf battles.
SYLVIA LANGMIRE, DRUG WAR ANALYST: Mexican youth is in a state of crisis right now. Many of them have very few educational prospects and therefore very few economic or job opportunities. Even if they were to stay in school. So what happens is you have a huge pool of millions of kids with nothing to do. And they see the glamour of the narco lifestyle. And this makes them a pool of recruits essentially for drug cartels.
VALENCIA: On Sunday, the U.S. State Department was still investigating the authenticity of the claims the teen was a U.S. citizen. They told CNN they were working with customs and border protection on the case. If true, "El Ponchis" this would be the second high-profile case of an American working for the Mexican drug cartels.
In August, American born drug trafficker Edgar Valdez Villareal alias "La Barbie" was caught by the Mexican Navy. He is expected to be extradited to the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: That's Nick Valencia in Mexico City.
Coming up next we go to Geneva, Switzerland, where diplomats are trying to reign in Iran's nuclear program. Officials from the U.S., China, Russia, France, and the U.K., and Germany are meeting with Iranian officials amid fears that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Today's meeting comes one day after Iran announced it is now producing yellow cake which can be used to produce nuclear fuel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALI AKBAR SALEHI, IRANIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY CHIEF: Iran has become self-sufficient in the entire fuel cycle starting from the exploration and then mining and then turning it into yellow cake and then into converting it into UF-6 and then enriching it and turning it into fuel plates or fuel pellets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: OK, out next stop. Venice, Italy. Venice, known for the romantic canals that wind through the city. But, bad weather and high tides have left most of city underwater. There are also floods across the Adriatic Sea in Albania. Thousands of Albanians had to be evacuated from their homes.
And there's a new device out there that can help you click your way to better health. I'm going to explain it to you right after this in the Big I.
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VELSHI: Somebody just e-mailed me to say why am I carrying around notebook. Just so you know, this is my iPad, in which I have the notes for the segments that we're about to do. I am trying it out. So it's not a briefcase, it's not a note pad, it's actually where I -- I guess a note pad. It's an electronic note pad.
My notes in here tell me, by the way, that it's time to do the Big I, and so does that big wall behind me. We're checking out a new device that allows you to monitor your blood pressure with just a click of the mouse.
Take a look at this. It's called the MD Mouse. It looks like a regular computer mouse with a weird attachment on the side. That loop is the key to monitoring and sending vital health information to doctors and healthcare providers. Kind of a neat concept. If you've used a treadmill that has a device that measures your heart rate, it's not a dissimilar concept.
This device could help an estimated 74.5 million American whose suffer from hypertension or high blood pressure. Joining me now is Terry Malloy, he's the chief operating officer at CalHealth, which developed and manufactures this MD Mouse.
Terry, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
TERRY MALLOY, COO, CALHEALTH: Thanks for having me.
VELSHI: You've got one of these mouses with you?
MALLOY: I do. And actually, this is the mouse right here.
VELSHI: Hold it up. Good.
MALLOY: I don't know if you can see it, or not? And the device actually sits inside the mouse. There's a door on the top. It pops open. The finger cuff comes out.
VELSHI: Yes.
MALLOY: You insert your finger and adjust it. And that's where you take your blood pressure. Normally when using the mouse, this could get in the way. So, we keep it stored inside so it's like a regular mouse.
VELSHI: So, in other words, you -- that's your normal mouse? you use that as your mouse for everything plus your blood pressure?
MALLOY: Right. Works like a regular mouse. We have a wireless version coming as well. This happens to be on a USB cable, but it works like a regular mouse.
VELSHI: Tell me the advantage here. For somebody with hypertension, they can have one of those little blood pressure thing that doctors have and can take their blood pressure are and write it down and then, I don't know, log it. What does this bring that helps?
MALLOY: Well, what this does is when you're working at home or in the office, we have a little alarm system that will remind you that it's time to take your blood pressure, for one. And what it does is when it takes the blood pressure, all of the data is automatically sent to the computer, or your PHR, your patient health record. So, the data is automatically scored, and it's all stored -- 100 percent of the data stored 100 percent of the time.
VELSHI: Accurate, reminds you to do it on an ongoing basis and is not particularly intrusive?
MALLOY: Right.
VELSHI: All right. Are these out on the market already?
MALLOY: They're not out yet. They'll be out in a couple of months. Depending on a couple of things with the company. We're in the second round of financing right now. So, they could be out the end of the first quarter of next year.
VELSHI: Will anybody able to buy it, or do you need a prescription?
MALLOY: No. Anybody will be able to buy it. Typically, 85 percent of blood pressure monitors today are sold in pharmacies.
VELSHI: Yep.
MALLOY: You'll usually get into your doctor. He tells you you have high blood pressure, and you get a prescription for some sort of medication. And it's suggested then that you purchase a home blood pressure monitor, and can you pick them up in pharmacies typically.
VELSHI: Terry, tell me this. Using the same concept, that it's something that's there, it's common. You can be reminded to do it. What other information can a mouse-type device help record and convey to your health care provider?
MALLOY: Well, we actually have a patent on a device. What the patent says is that we can put any monitoring device inside the mouse that we want. So, we've got other devices that we're working on now. One is a glucometer for people with diabetes. We have devices that work with people with COPD. We've also been looking at putting a stress monitor in the mouse so that when at work, as an example, things get stressed, it will let you know and you can sort of, you know --
VELSHI: Take steps to destress?
MALLOY: Take a break. Right, exactly. VELSHI: Excellent idea. Terry, we appreciate you joining us to talk to us a little about this M.D. Mouse. Terry Malloy is the chief operating officer at Cal Health joining me from Irvine, California.
For more information about the M.D. Mouse, go to my blog, CNN.com/Ali. You'll find a link to their Web site.
OK. Checking latest developments in our top stories. Two members of the U.S. marshals service have been injured this morning. Officials say they were trying to arrest a rape suspect in Washington, D.C. when the suspect doused himself in a flammable liquid and set himself on fire. The suspect and both of the marshals were burned. They're all being treated at a local hospital.
It's being described as the biggest fraud investigation in U.S. history. Attorney general Eric Holder says more than 300 people face criminal charges, and 189 face civil penalties. The allegations include conducting Ponzi schemes and foreign currency training scam.
And the Israel wildfire death toll has risen to 42. The fire forced thousands of evacuations before it was extinguished today. Investigators say they've detained a 14-year-old boy who admitted smoking a pipe in the woods.
All right. I want to take it over to Jacqui Jeras. She's got some information on a big snow effect event that happened near where I come from.
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JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ali, coming up in the next hour a little more about the lake-effect snows. People's roofs are starting to bend down a little . We'll talk about the weight of that snow coming up in the next hour.
VELSHI: All right. Well, I'm glad those suckers in the northeast -- I'm glad I live in balmy, hot Atlanta.
(LAUGHTER)
VELSHI: It's freezing here! It's colder here than it was in New York.
JERAS: It's 38.
VELSHI: All right. We'll talk more about the weather. Deep freeze for half of the country.
All right. We've got a political update next and following developing news at a White House. A word of a meeting on a possible tax cuts deal. I'll bring you all of that on the other side.
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VELSHI: Time now for a CNN political update. Brianna Keilar is CNN's congressional correspondent. She's on Capitol Hill now. What have you got, Brianna?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have some breaking news we just got up on the ticker, Ali.
You know, tax cuts is what everyone is talking about here on Capitol Hill. We just learned in about 15 minutes, House Democratic leaders are heading to the White House and meet with vice president Joe Biden to talk about how to move forward here. Now, right now all indications are that a deal is close, that negotiations seem to be leaning towards extending tax cuts for all Americans, including the wealthiest Americans, which is what Republicans want.
And what Republicans indicate they'll give on is extending unemployment benefits for Americans who have been unemployed for some time now. Well, a lot of Democrats say that just isn't enough. You can certainly count the folks heading over to the White House now to speak with Joe Biden among those people saying that.
Then another big question on tax cuts, and this is up on the ticker right now at CNNpolitics.com. If they are extended, how long are they going to be extended for? And when you listened yesterday to "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley, you got a whole lot of different answers. We heard from Utah senator Orrin Hatch. He said he would accept a two-year extension of the current tax levels. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon saying he would accept a one-year extension. So, that certainly is not a done deal.
And then let's wrap up this ticker hit, Ali, with a little bit of fun, shall we? This is secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who is kind of making light of that very serious WikiLeaks document drop -- 250,000 documents that have begun to come out. She was speaking last night - or pardon me, Saturday night -- at Kennedy Center Honors and she said that -- she was noting that there was a full breadth and depth of American artistry present. And said she's writing a cable about it, which she's sure you'll find soon on your closest Web site.
VELSHI: Since the first day she spoke about this when she had that press conference a week or a week-and-a-half ago, whenever it was, she sort of injected humor from the beginning because she knew this would be an embarrassing thing for the diplomatic corps of which she is the head and used humor throughout the whole thing. But I imagine it's getting hard to test that.
All right. You talked about the length of time that those tax cuts might be extended for. What's the length of time before we expect a deal? Are they still looking for sometime this week?
KEILAR: Yes. It could be sometime this week. And so we're hoping to figure that out. We're hearing all kinds of different things. Seems to be between one and three years. I hear from some sources it could be two years, but it's not set in stone. So, we're really just waiting to see. That should be breaking soon, though.
VELSHI: All right. Very good. We'll stay on top of it. I know you are on top of it. I know there's a meeting happening in the White House probably in five minutes or so between those Democratic leaders you have talked about and the vice president, who's minding the store today to discuss it. Brianna, thanks very much.
CNN committed to keeping you informed on all the important political news. Your next update is just an hour away.
Coming up in "Odds & Ends," a teenage driver terrorizes a swathe of northern Ohio. See the crazy chase that got him dumped in jail.
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VELSHI: All right. Time now for "Odds & Ends." We'll start in northern Ohio, where a dump truck was reported missing on Saturday. Not so odd, you say? Well, stand by.
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VELSHI: That was dash cam video of a police car being rammed into a light pole by the dump truck. Turns out it had been stolen by a teenager who led cops on a 52-mile chase.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought it was a movie being filmed. Went right through both police cars. Knocked the police cars out of the way. Hit four more cars. A black BMW SUV. It was like throwing these cars. It was unbelievable.
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VELSHI: The 17-year-old driver eventually plowed into a guardrail and was arrested on numerous charges. Two police officers were hurt in this demolition derby but they've been treated and released from hospital.
OK. Staying with Ohio and car parts. One very creative homeowner decided to go greener with this year's holiday display. All by himself, he built a windmill car battery combo to generate electricity for his light show. His contraption can save up nough juice to run for three or four windless days.
Now, get this. It's not really saving him money. In fact, he says a good old extension cord setup would have been cheaper.
